I am very pleased that the cabinet of Bournemouth Council decided on Wednesday to withdraw the proposed travellers’ site near the town centre.

As soon as the proposal became public I contacted the local organisers of the campaign.

Local people owe a debt of gratitude to Max Clarke who took the lead in the campaign which resulted in almost 2,000 signatures in around a week.

I was pleased to help him. And local people can be pleased that the council listened to the strength of your feelings.

However the public should not forget that it is due to a decision of this Labour government that each local authority must have its own travellers’ provision.

It is the view of the Conservative party nationally that local authorities should be able to combine to have a collective site. That would then still give Bournemouth the ability to remove illegal encampments.

We recognise that in highly developed areas such as Bournemouth that it will be difficult to find suitable sites and plan to change the law if we can win the next general election.

Conor Burns, prospective Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Bournemouth West